


Stolen Time

by penguinspy42



Series: A Family of Songs [2]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Family, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-01
Updated: 2013-06-01
Packaged: 2017-12-13 14:30:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,568
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/825368
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/penguinspy42/pseuds/penguinspy42
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It had seemed like such a good idea from thousands of years and millions of miles away. But now River was having second thoughts about acting as sitter to the family who adopted her daughter.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stolen Time

_Crack!_

To anyone nearby, it probably sounded like a firecracker set off by some rowdy kids, while a puff of smoke from the alleyway would confirm the suspicions of anyone watching. Soon the otherwise quiet neighborhood would turn their attentions back to their nightly rituals, some maybe grumbling a bit about the out of control teens these days. But often, what seems like a perfectly ordinary event on the surface is anything but.

Several moments after the mild disruption, a woman stepped from the shadows near where the sound had originated. Though she didn't appear very unusual, she still managed to seem out of place. She walked with purpose down the quiet street and turned up the path toward a small cottage-style house. When she reached the door, she lifted her hand to knock but froze as her hearts, breath, and mind began to race. It had seemed like such a good idea from thousands of years and millions of miles away. But now River was having second thoughts about acting as sitter to the family who adopted her daughter.

Before she could change her mind and leave, a young woman opened the door with a bright smile on her face. “Ah, hello! You must be ... Miss Smith?”

Recovering quickly, River nodded and returned smile of her own. “Yes, and you must be Mrs. Oswald.”

“Oh, please, call me Ellie. And this is my husband, Dave,” she said, motioning to the man stumbling into the entryway, still tying his tie. “Thank you for coming on such short notice. When our usual girl had to cancel, we thought we wouldn't be able to go and we've had these tickets for ages.”

“What are you seeing?”

“A Midsummer's Night Dream,” Dave responded. “It's supposed to be an excellent production.”

“Ah, I love that one.” River said with a smile.

“Clara! Come out here a moment, please!” Ellie called then picked up a paper from the table by the door. “These are all the numbers in case of an emergency. The neighbors, the theatre, the doctor. Everything you could need.”

River accepted the paper when some movement caught her eye. She looked up to see a small girl creeping down the hall, hugging the wall and watching her closely. This really was a bad idea, she thought. Goodness knows she had plenty of practice hiding her emotions when the Doctor was around, but seeing Clara looking back at her, so grown from when River last held her, nearly broke her.

“Clara, this is Miss Smith,” Ellie explained gently, “She's going to be staying with you tonight.”

“Where's Annie?”

“Annie couldn't be here, sweetheart, but Miss Smith will take good care of you.”

The girl stared at her a few moments more before she mumbled, “Her hair is funny.”

“Clara!”

“It is, isn't it?” River agreed as she approached the child and knelt in front of her. “Do you know why?”

“Why?”

River whispered, “It's space hair.”

The girl's eyes widened and she asked, “Really?”

Bowing her head slightly, River said, “Tell me what you think.”

Clara reached out hesitantly, patting the mass of curls a few times before she broke out in giggles. “I like space! I have stars in my room! Come see!” With that, the child turned and ran back down the hallway from which she emerged.

“I can tell we're leaving her in good hands,” Ellie remarked.

Standing, River turned to the couple by the door, when down the hall Clara called, “Hurry!”

“I believe I'm being summoned. I'm sure you will have a splendid evening.”

As they left, River heeded the call and wandered further into the house. Entering the room, she found Clara sitting on the bed, holding a torch and shining it around the ceiling covered with little plastic stars. “They need light because--because they can't glow if they're hungry.”

“Ah, I see,” River replied, sitting on the bed next to the child. “You have a lot of stars, don't you?”

“Yeah. Not as many as real ones.”

“True,” she agreed. “But then you'd need a ceiling as big as the sky!”

Dissolving into giggles again, Clara said, “I wish I had that!”

Smiling, River looked around the room. It was what one would expect for a girl of her age; toys, books, pictures of family. Her adopted family, anyway. But they'd always be her family, River knew. Even years from that moment when Clara discovered the truth about herself and her birth parents, the couple raising her would still be her real parents in her heart.

That's when she noticed a small blue box next to one of the frames. It was a TARDIS. Or well, a police box anyway. She picked it up and asked Clara, “What's this?”

Shrugging, Clara replied, “Santa brought it for me. It's a please box. People ask them for help, but they have to say please first.”

_Santa indeed_ , River thought. More like an impossible man who doesn't know the meaning of a rule unless it suits him. She wondered briefly what Clara's parents thought when she pulled the toy out on Christmas morning and neither had purchased it. Or maybe each just assumed the other had bought it.

Picking up one of her bears, Clara took the blue box from River and held it up to the stuffed toy's ear. Then in the gruffest voice she could muster, she said, “Please help, someone stole my biscuit!”

So started the great biscuit caper of the evening, wherein River and Clara questioned the all the toys and looked for clues all over the house. After some dead ends and missteps, which resulted in an apparently perfectly innocent stuffed owl being accused of the crime, they finally determined the culprit to be a toy mouse not much bigger than the treat he took. His story; if you don't give a mouse a biscuit, he'll simply steal it instead. After a stern talking to from both River and Clara, they were satisfied that the mouse had learned his lesson and would ask for a biscuit next time. Of course, by saying please.

As the mystery was settled, River glanced at the clock and remarked, “Oh, how did it get so late? It's nearly bedtime.”

Yawning, Clara insisted, “But I'm not sleepy.”

“Well, I think maybe we both earned a bit of a reward after solving that mystery. How about we have star tea?”

“What's that?”

“It's like normal tea, but under the stars.”

Clara squealed and bounced excitedly, actions that River took as agreement to the suggestion, so she set about preparing the bedtime snack; tea for herself and warm milk for the girl. She also placed a biscuit for each on a small plate, in recognition of their mystery solving abilities.

Outside, she spread a blanket on the ground and the two settled in, gazing up at the astonishingly clear night.

“I'm going to visit them all someday,” Clara said.

“All the stars?”

“Yeah.”

“Me too,” River agreed. “How many do you think there are?”

The girl thought about it for a moment before replying, “Lots.” She gazed at the sky a few moments more before asking River, “Do you think people like us are up there?”

“Well, I think anything is possible. What do you think?”

“Yeah. I'm going to take them biscuits so they know I'm nice.”

“I'm sure they'll appreciate that.”

Once the cups were empty, nothing but crumbs remained on the plate, and Clara started slumping over drowsily, River took everything inside and helped the girl get ready for bed.

As she settled the child in the bed, Clara asked, “Can you take care of me again?”

Her chest already tight from the evening, River looked away and smoothed the blanket on the bed as she said, “I don't know, sweetheart, I usually live far away. I was just in town this evening.”

“But I like you a lot,” she whinged. “Even more than Annie.”

“Well,” she began, looking back at the girl with the brightest smile she could offer. “Maybe we'll meet again. Perhaps on our trips to the stars.”

“Promise?” the child asked sleepily.

“I promise.”

After tucking the girl in, River ran her hand over Clara's hair and whispered, “Sweet dreams, little one.”

Moving away across the room, she stopped in the doorway and turned, hovering there, finding it difficult to turn away. She knew she'd see Clara again, and her daughter would turn out absolutely amazing. But she'd never see her like this again. She reminded herself that she'd stolen more time with Clara than Amy was granted with her, but at the moment that thought really didn't make it any easier. Lifting her tearful eyes to the colorful stars on the ceiling above, she was finally able to tear her gaze away from the girl and wander slowly down the hall. She spent the rest of the evening in the sitting room writing in her diary.

When Clara’s parents arrived home, she greeted them warmly and assured them their daughter was a dream while refusing their money. It was a special, she explained, an apology that their usual sitter had to cancel. Then she left quickly, before they had time to insist. She returned to the alley way in which she arrived and, obscured by shadow, she whispered, “Goodbye my darling girl, see you when you’re all grown up.”

_Crack!_


End file.
